Letter: God didn’t vote for your candidate

A Nov. 27 letter concludes that God intervened to affect the election of Republican President-elect Donald Trump. That statement mirrors similar social media content and dovetails with pre-election posts opining that Trump’s positions were consistent with “biblical principles”.

Proclaiming God’s intervention is a throwback to the Divine Right of Kings, the foundation of rule that was rejected by the American Revolution. Suggesting that biblical principles uniformly endorsed Trump exposes a suspension of reason and a proclivity for selectively interpreting scripture out of context.

Thomas Jefferson’s reference to “nature and nature’s God”, not exactly a ringing endorsement of Christianity, reflects the influence of the Age of Enlightenment on the founders’ approach to establishing American democracy. They valued logic and scientific method and rejected the application of religious orthodoxy to civil affairs.

The resultant separation of church and state is now being eroded by politically engaged evangelicals who, in tandem with alt-right media, appeal to irrationality, fear and paranoia: the tools of demagogues.

Thus the attraction of Trump to the readily deluded.

I disagree with but must respect those who supported Trump for economic, national security, or other reasons.

However the suggestion that his candidacy was endorsed by God requires copious degrees of self-righteous ignorance.